The Woman's Piano
by Desert Bloom
Summary: When Relena Peacecraft is tricked into 'seducing' a Heero Yuy by her brother's demonical partner Treize, she doesn't suspect that learning to love this boy will eventually unravel her - and his - past.
1. Rain Rain Go Away

_Authoresses Note:  
  
Like a lot of authors, I got better at writing, at least in my humble opinion, plus there was the age-old dilemma of the Relena/Lila screw up. So I decided to go back and fix up some of the more confusing stuff, as well as add italics and all that. If you've already read the story it's not necessary to read these chapters over again, but for new arrivals it's probably a lot easier to deal with._  
  
_Just someone I made up randomly. Never comes up ever again._

* * *

Chapter One of The Woman's Piano: Rain Rain Go Away

* * *

The downpour came as a quick surprise for Heero, who was caught a couple blocks away from his father's shop, but Heero didn't mind it. Time had taught him that sometimes, when you need a quiet place to think and just mull over life for a while, there was nothing better than the solitude of the rain. Ironically, he supposed, the only reason he liked the rain was because he had the streets all to himself when it rained, which was because everyone else had enough sense to go inside and not come down with pneumonia or something along those lines that came with the hacking cough and the bed-ridden state for weeks. He would take it as it came.  
  
He would've been quite content in walking along in that sort of pondering frame of mind for as long as he could, but was forced to come out of it eventually, for a paper suddenly smacked into his knee. Curious, he knelt on the pavement and picked it up, trying to keep it flapping from the wind, studying the wet and smeared scribbles that had transpired all over the paper.  
  
His own rebel and punk ways had become evident on his attire now, with his clothes usually consisting of black clothes all around. He'd kept the habit up today, what with the long black jacket that went down to his knees and the baggy pants that he was sure was probably, in all logic, two sizes too big for him - the point being that he looked the opposite of all that have to do with art and the like, basically everything that was beautiful and captured a loveliness of some form. That was what people mistook about him, the fact that he had a gentle side that was actually the dominating factor in his personality and philosophy. And now, as he looked down at the soaked paper in his hand, he felt a subtle admiration for the absolute wonder that was portrayed on the pages - enough to take his breath away, and it did.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Oh." A face peered down at him as he looked up. A very pretty face, actually, his age too, but he tried not to think of that.  
  
The girl held out her hand and smiled faintly. "I'm sorry. The wind's very strong right now and I lost control of that one."  
  
Her observation was in total truth right then, as the wind was blowing rather strongly. Heero had some trouble keeping his two feet planted on the ground because of the gust's commotion, and her considerably smaller frame seemed no match for nature's fury. He placed the paper in her hand, slowly getting to his feet, and then noticing that she was blushing.  
  
Before he could figure out why, a particularly rough gale passed through, knocking her clean off her feet and into him, her form fitting perfectly into his. Heero blushed as well, but it was mostly because somehow in that mess his free hand had been thrown around her side. Both of them were rather quick to break out of the hold.  
  
"I suggest you get out of the rain." He suggested awkwardly.  
  
Under her arm she carried a folder – a now soaked folder – and it was within this soaked folder that she, fumblingly, placed the soaked folder in. Looking back up to him, she shrugged carelessly. "I kind of like the rain."  
  
He chuckled. "So do I. Umm...may I ask what your drawing was of?"  
  
"Sure, I don't mind if you ask." A pause. "Oh! Its.,,well.. .something very wet now."  
  
"It's a woman playing a piano, isn't it?" He paused, eyes detailing it further. "I like the way you did the eyes. You probably worked the longest on them, right? It looks like something straight of Nori William's paintings."  
  
She looked up very quickly, observant, pale blue eyes studying him in a look that he thought was piercingly intelligent.

* * *

"I live alone at the moment, actually. My brother's friend supports me, but he's always away on business. It's always just me and the servants."  
  
"Servants? Wow. Are you rich or something?"  
  
She shifted her position somewhat on the bench they'd taken as their seats, both of them not possibly more uncaring of the rain that plagued them from the farthest reaches of the heavens. "Rich? I'm not sure about that. Money wise, no. I don't have any actually money to myself. Rich in other things? I'm a lucky individual."  
  
"You draw beautifully. It's lucky to draw like that...no, I'm not sure if luck has anything to do with that."  
  
"So where you learn about Nori Williams?"  
  
Heero leaned back deeper into the back of the bench, folding his arms behind his head and staring somewhat listlessly off into space as he considered his next words. She then leant forward, hands clasped between her knees, looking back at him and awaiting an answer.  
  
"My grandfather."  
  
"Your grandfather what?"  
  
"He was big on art. He taught me everything about it, and he was quite a painter himself." Not really wanting to get on that topic that much, he continued on to another subject. "And you?"  
  
She couldn't resist a smile, the beginnings of which gradually worked around her expression until it was a wide grin that as far as Heero was concerned, was beautiful, even if only for the evident happiness portrayed there. That wasn't the only reason, though. She was beautiful in sheer appearance, with those wide, innocent eyes and pale pink lips. "There was a point when I was younger where I was always moving about. Drawing was the one constant – It stayed the same."  
  
"Moving around?"  
  
"Yes. My brother - "  
  
"You said his friend was rich."  
  
A long sigh here. "He is. And so...is my brother."  
  
Was it just he or was there something wrong about her brother? He almost wanted to ask her if the brother had ever done anything to her but stopped himself. There was just something about the girl that projected a profound strength, and then, at the same time, a deep vulnerability that he wanted to make sure didn't hold her back.  
  
Yeah, she seemed uncomfortable about the subject of her brother. And he didn't want to pry further.  
  
"Oh god." She said suddenly, throwing a glance at the watch around her wrist.  
  
He blinked. "What?"  
  
"I'm so sorry. I've got to go."  
  
And before another word was lost between them, she was up and beginning to leave. Heero had just enough wits about him to jump to his feet and yell out to her diminishing form, "Hey, wait a minute! What's your name?"  
  
She glanced back over her shoulder just long enough to give the answer of, "Relena," and then he lost her to the fog that always comes with the encompassment of rain.  
  
"Hey, Heero!"  
  
Heero nearly jumped ten feet in the air as a familiar voice broadcast their presence in his ear.  
  
"Duo, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop doing that."  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"By the way." Duo leaned on Heero's shoulder, trying to seem as if he wasn't really interested in his next question, even though Heero, subject to the knowledge of the ins and outs of Duo, knew exactly that he was, no buts about it. "Who was that girl? I didn't know you had a girlfriend."  
  
"That's because I don't." responded Heero curtly, not feeling quite as mister sunshine as before.  
  
"She was pretty. Say, she wouldn't happen to have a sister, would she? Heero? Heero, where you going?"

* * *

Treize's new mansion spared no expenses. Relena wasn't sure if she could get used to how incredibly large the place was, but she was, nonetheless, thankful to him for the extent he had gone to take care of her.  
  
_"I'll get lost a hundred times." She told him on a visit at their old home, when he told her the square acres of the place. "Don't expect me to be making you anything in the kitchen if you come to visit if I can't find the kitchen in the first place." Jokes could be made with him – as Zech's business partner he'd doubled as her uncle while Zechs had been around, and this history with him made her comfortable enough to interact as such, even when she had doubts about him as she did now._  
  
_He had merely smiled that enchanting smile she'd never been able to decode, shrugging her words off like he always did. "You always burn it anyway," And she couldn't argue with him anyway because it was true._  
  
That memory came rushing back to her as she entered the main hallway, still having to pause for a moment and ponder which direction she should travel to find her room.  
  
_"It's to the right. Five doors down, then there's a staircase. You take that up, dear sister."_  
  
Relena turned where she was in the threshold, her long light hair swishing behind her, questioning eyes focusing on her brother's friend as he came through another doorway to her left. "Treize." She said breathlessly.  
  
Beside Treize, she always felt so – and this was hard to explain – so decidedly common. His perfect posture, how he never slacked, the way his voice curved over the syllables and pronunciations of the English language with a slight sneer and little chuckle always – it all screamed of regal, and yet did nothing of the sort, because regal people never scream, merely chastise. And she hated it when her thoughts rambled on poetically, spouting nonsense. It was true though – Treize was everything Zechs had been, before his untimely disappearance. Treize recognized that fact and had even told her to think of him as his replacement if she liked, for he loved her like a brother would.  
  
"What're you doing here?" She found herself saying, rude only because she hated a shock.  
  
"You seem upset about it."  
  
"I'm not." She forced a smile. "I'm just surprised. What's going on? I haven't seen you in person for a few months now, so I wonder if anything bad has happened."  
  
He seemed to be considering his next words where he stood. "I'll talk to you about it later tonight. You should dry off, you're soaked. Anyone ever tell you to come in from the rain?"  
  
Relena found herself smiling in a way she felt she hadn't for a very, very long time. "Actually, yes."  
  
She dried off, and then, after finding her room, sat down at the easel located by the window, the one overlooking the gardens. Steadily, she began to transfer her woman over the piano drawing to the canvas, though not able to keep her mind off of a punk with a kind smile and an appreciation for art.  
  
Treize made his next appearance three hours later, awakening her from her philosophical stupor trademark to her time spent drawing.  
  
"It's a favor, actually. I'd like you to do me a favor." He said, once again making an entrance the threshold of the room.  
  
She, very carefully, set down her pencil against the canvas, looking up to him slowly. It occurred to her how, even after meeting him again after so much time, they'd never even so much as hugged. It was a strained relationship that was for sure, Treize's 'brotherly' interactions always seeming so forced and – calculated. Yes, calculated.  
  
It was this musing about Treize's calculated actions that brought forward her half-joke.  
  
"What? You want me to seduce someone or something?" A snort here, and she turned her attention wistfully to the window  
  
"Yes, in so many words."  
  
Very quickly she had returned her eyes to him, disbelief evident. "What?"  
  
"You're starting Cinq High School in about a week, yes?"  
  
She shrugged. "Yes."  
  
"There is a boy there that holds a possession of interest to me. Or rather he /i/is the interest...we'll figure that out in due time, with your help, of course."  
  
"What? I won't do it, Treize. Go hire some whore of yours."  
  
If Treize felt the stab of accusation in her last sentence, he paid no heed to it, moving forward in that forever-regal bearing of his, a sparkling object in his one hand catching her attention. Her eyes stopped, fixated on the object, and when he noticed this he raised it so she could see it fully.  
  
"That's mother's necklace."  
  
He nodded.  
  
"It was supposed to go to me after her death."  
  
"Perhaps."  
  
"Perhaps nothing!"  
  
"Do you want it? I just want you to get to know him, that's all. Not a seducer even, just a best friend maybe. Or just a friend. Someone that means something to him, at any rate. His name is Heero Yuy."  
  
"You want me to lie."  
  
He shrugged.  
  
Cool calculation. This was what Treize had become, or always had been, toying with emotions and setting chess-like plans in place, never against using anyone for his deceptive schemes. Did you know, Zechs?  
  
But as Treize slowly put the necklace back in his pocket and flashed her a worn smile, she knew what she had to do. After he'd left the room she, frustrated at basically everything because of anger's little quirks, tore out the canvas she'd worked so hard on, balled it up, and threw it in the wastebasket, not even bothering to start another. 


	2. This Will Be

_Authoresses Note: This chapter is pretty important, because it introduces a lot of the characters that we're already familiar with, but also the roles that they will be taking in this AU. Unfortunately, you don't really get the eh, details until later on, because you're only given the little knowledge that Relena has. Now that I think of it, this is the only AU I've ever done before...By the way, I don't hate Sylvia. I think there's no reason, but I needed a character that not many people would get offended if I used in a villain's role. She's just a name, really, and not a very important one in the story._

* * *

Part Two of The Woman's Piano: This Will Be

* * *

Like most students, Relena did not want school to begin. Unlike most students however, her reasons had nothing to do with loathing the possible work that would doubtlessly come with the year. No, she would have to do the ultimate, prove her absolute submission to her Treize's whims and fancies, all for the necklace: she was going to have to be a seducer and the good, honest part of her was dying because of it. She just prayed that the boy – Heero, according to Treize – would be able to see past her lie and she could just go back to Treize and say that too bad, she tried, so give her the necklace for the effort at least.  
  
That was the thing, though. Her brother would not accept failure, she realized, and though he would not respond angrily, neither would he relinquish the prize necklace. So she had to do it, and she had to do it perfectly. But the whole time she could remember her mother's words after she had stolen the illegal cookies from the pantry, and insisted she hadn't, even when an incriminating chocolate stain hung around the corners of her mouth: Don't lie Relena; it's the worst possible thing you can do in life. Relena could see her mom's face giving that chastisement, her mom's eyes burning with a beauty unto itself, just like Zech's, actually. It haunted her as she fumbled with her locker and made her way to her homeroom.  
  
She sat herself in the back corner, wanting to sleep away from the main throng in the morning. There was already a girl there, who seemed to have the right idea – she was face-down on the desk and heavy breathing punctuated the silence of the nearly vacant classroom (it was still early). Simply sitting didn't feel quite right to her, so Lila took out a piece of paper and once again began to sketch the woman over the piano. Time ebbed away from her in this state of utter concentration, and she didn't even hear the voice the first time the person spoke, though the second time it did rouse her.  
  
"Hey! Are you awake? Or dead? Or something?"  
  
Relena looked up quickly, blinking. "Oh. I'm sorry."  
  
It was the girl that had been head-down at the desk at first, definitely having woken up now. "Wow! Did you draw that?" The girl put a hand on it, covering the penciled upper scalp of hair.  
  
Getting the hint, Relena gently pushed it to her. "Yeah."  
  
"Wow. It's amazing." She had an undeniably unique voice; like Treize's, it felt royal.  
  
"Hey, thanks."  
  
"No problem. How'd you get it so complicated like that?"  
  
"Complicated?"  
  
Nodding, the girl, who had been holding it up to the lamp's light and studying it carefully, handed it back to her and randomly pointed at different points where Relena had gotten more poetic in terms of drawing. "Just so...I don't know, it flows. You'd think she was capable of breath or something, like she was living."  
  
"Thanks a lot. Do you draw too?"  
  
"I try to draw, but that's not really the same thing, huh?"  
  
"Got anything with you to show me?"  
  
"At home. I can bring it in tomorrow, if you wa -"  
  
The teacher clapped her hands at that precise moment, demanding the attention of the twenty or so students that had showed up. After introducing herself as Lady Une (She was young, hence the Ms., and also very pretty if details should be given, so Lila guessed her title would be changing soon) she asked for all students to be seated as she called roll. Much to Lila's relief Lady Une didn't care where they sat; it was the age- old deal of as long as you behave you could do whatever you want. This meant she could sit next to the nice, very charismatic, girl. Hey, socializing would be work, but it could also be fun too, and Relena wasn't entirely against the notion of a making a friend.  
  
"Dorothy Catalonia?" Lady Une called out, and the girl that had praised Lila's drawing raised her hand.  
  
_Catalonia!_  
  
Could she be a member of that rich family Treize was always talking about? She knew they did business with Zech's corporation, but had had a bad falling out a few years ago. The fact that this had been around the time of Zech's 'disappearance' had always intrigued her – as Relena sat there, she made plans to ask this Dorothy about her family, subtly so, of course.  
  
And then,  
  
"Heero?"  
  
Relena's eyes combed the room for the boy that would respond, but none did. The teacher said his name again and again it was met with silence; just as confused as Relena was, Lady Une marked him absent and class went on.  
  
When Relena looked back to Dorothy she saw her new friend was shaking with silent laughter.  
  
"What's so funny?" Relena finally asked, poking her.  
  
Dorothy fought for control. "Some friends of mine switched poor Heero- baka's schedule with someone else's."  
  
"That's rather rude –" But even as made the comment, she was brimming with a sick anxiousness mixed with excitement. That would help her social exploits considerably.  
  
But Dorothy wouldn't let Relena get any false ideas of her friend's intentions. "It was payback," She explained, "Heero did the same thing to Wufei - that's one of them - last year. And don't get the wrong idea, Heero and Wufei are inseparable most of the time." Her laughter slowed as the teacher sent her a glance and the conversation fell into hushed whispers.  
  
"So you're Heero's friend?"  
  
"Well, I'm everybody's friend. I can introduce you to Heero later."  
  
"Sure. That would be great."  
  
Relena felt guilty that she was enjoying this friendship with Dorothy more because of Dorothy's obvious connection with Heero, meaning her goal would be easier – unless, of course, Dorothy was in a stronger relationship with Heero then she was letting on, in which case Relena would have to play an awful game of betrayal and stealing.  
  
"Sorry I'm late. I got lost."  
  
The new voice, strangely familiar to Relena, stopped talk momentarily in the room; attention was directed to the doorway as the 'newcomer' entered and then diverted once more as the various groups of people returned to their conversation. He wasn't of the same importance to them as he was to Relena, although she wondered briefly what was possibly wrong with them.  
  
"Name?" asked Lady Une. "And exceptions can certainly be made for the first day of school, so don't worry."  
  
"Heero Yuy. Thanks."  
  
The boy that Relena was to seduce began across the room, having seen Dorothy and sent her a look of indignation. He stopped however, stopped right in his tracks and merely stared for a moment, seeing Relena just as Relena saw him.  
  
_Damn you, Treize. I will never forgive you.  
  
Not him, of all people, not him._  
  
It was the cute punk with a kind, though unmistakably tired smile, and a love of art.

* * *

Relena fell into the fluid movements of her pencil, her brow furrowed, every piece of her will bent on one thing and one thing only: getting this painting done and making it the best. She was going to make this the loveliest thing ever to grace existence; it was going to have breath, just as Dorothy had said earlier - it was going to live. It was, quite possibly, one of the few things she had control over right now, as she worked away silently in the art room after school on the easel, and that fact was treasured. The woman bent over the piano was sculptured again and again, taking different poses each time, eraser chipping madly away at times, and then lapsing into sleek, skillful pencil movements - she was reborn again and again, seeking the one life that she would be happiest in, or, at the very least, would be the most artful and beautiful in. After all, art isn't rosy; it's climatic.  
  
Heero had said hello nicely enough, and they had assured Dorothy's surprise that yes, they did now each other. Dorothy, it had turned out, had her eyes set quite determinedly on a shy but definitely good-looking boy named Quatre. After homeroom in the hallway they'd run into the other members of what was to be Relena's 'clique' – there was Sally and Wufei (who had been Heero's tricksters, and were very obviously in love), the Quatre person, and Hilde and Duo (another couple). Relena enjoyed how set in stone things seemed to be – there were no 'tensions' in the group; everyone outright adored each other even if that meant arguing constantly with their beloved to illustrate that particular point (a.k.a. Sally and Wufei).  
  
There was a confusing moment, however, when a fellow blonde had showed up and started to flirt shamelessly with Heero. Heero flirted back well enough, or, at least, took it in good humor. He wasn't a flirt, she noted, just very handsome and therefore very popular – he seemed withdrawn all the time, as if he didn't want the attention and wished to hide from it, except he didn't know where. It seemed no one else really considered this Sylvia person a friend. Hilde and Duo had turned around and headed in the other direction the minute Sylvia and her posse showed up; the other's greetings were also quite stale, besides Heero, who followed interactions with Sylvia half-heartedly.  
  
Was this person competition or was Heero just being a nice person?  
  
Competition with what, though?  
  
After all, Relena didn't actually like Heero.  
  
Right, that was it.  
  
Sylvia the flirty prep could have Heero the accidental punk playboy.  
  
All Relena wanted was a short affair for her mother's necklace's sake.  
  
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder. It wasn't rough but neither was it gentle - Relena jumped merely because of the surprise.  
  
"It's only me," giggled a voice behind her.  
  
Relena turned, and had to hide her surprise. Speak of the devil. Or devilress, at least.  
  
Sylvia smiled sweetly. Relena returned it, not seeing any reason to anticipate a fight. "I'm sorry. When I'm drawing I tend to be a little out of it."  
  
"Oh. But isn't that a little dangerous?" /i/Why would she say that?  
  
What the hell is she doing, anyway? I never said I was her friend./  
  
A mere shrug was Relena's response to Sylvia's comment, as the artist turned back to examine her wares. Not too bad - now just to accentuate the positive and degrade the negative and she would have a work of art, the current 'best of her ability'. Better 'best of abilities' would come, naturally, as time and experience dictates it should.  
  
"Wow. That's not too shabby. You draw?"  
  
Relena nodded. "What's your honest opinion? Don't spare me any critiques. I need to take care of the mistakes."  
  
"Can I change something? To make it better. I draw a little too."  
  
Relena blinked, but Sylvia's suggestion was not made laughingly, but in absolute seriousness. The only thing was, Sylvia didn't seem the artsy sort.  
  
"Um, okay."  
  
Wordlessly, Sylvia picked up an eraser and made a long line down with it, cutting the woman in half. Then she began to furiously blot out the head, but was stopped as Relena thrust out a hand and grabbed her wrist.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" Relena demanded, horrified at her hour-long work's demise.  
  
Wrestling her hand from Relena's grasp, Sylvia pulled it back once free and let it smack harshly against Relena's cheek in a blow that seemed to echo throughout the small art room. Relena grimaced at the pain - Sylvia was strong, give her that - but not about to back down either, she slapped Sylvia a good one back, a nice satisfying crack. Immediately, however, strong hands were holding her arms back, bending her backwards in a satanic bear hug that rendered her useless in a fight.  
  
Sylvia had prepared and not come alone. Relena would have complimented at her if not for the fact that she currently considered her a despicable human being and absolutely hated her guts, which can be a drawback to relationships.  
  
"You," Sylvia quietly set the eraser down on the easel, looking down on Relena in an eerily calm manner, "Can't draw shit."  
  
Relena grinned, despite her desperate circumstances. "That's funny. Why would I want to draw you?"  
  
Sylvia's friend - or friends, Relena wasn't sure which - forced Relena down to a painful crouching position, totally at Sylvia's mercy. Sylvia had nothing against taking advantage of that, as she made evident. She pulled back her leg and sent it to Relena's face, a well-executed sidekick. Blood tasted in Relena's mouth and Relena wondered how she'd explain the bruise to Treize. Would Treize care, or would it mean that she was getting closer to Heero and that was all? At least, that was why Sylvia was doing this, right?  
  
"What did you think you were doing with Heero?"  
  
Yeah, that was it.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Relena was bent over on the ground, pain throbbing where she'd been kicked.  
  
"Don't play dumb with me. You were all over him today in the hallway today."  
  
"We hugged. Once. Friends hug."  
  
"Heero never hugs just friends."  
  
It was true. He hadn't hugged Dorothy or Hilde or anyone else. He'd hugged Sylvia and Relena and that was all - and his hug with Sylvia had been brief, a touch of the shoulder. Relena had been surprised by the hug but not complaining, and hugged him back. She'd also nursed a notion that Heero had hugged her because it looked like Sylvia would execute verbal warfare if he didn't, but had pushed that back, wanting to believe that she could make him happy after she'd eventually, possibly, broken his heart.  
  
"I don't care about him. He's a stupid playboy, anyway. You can have him."  
  
"Don't patronize me!"  
  
Another kick. This time in the stomach. Relena didn't think she could move fast enough to fight back, and definitely not with these other girls around. This was ridiculous; how psycho was this Sylvia psycho to get this wound up over some stupid playboy like Heero? Except Heero was more than a playboy and she knew it - but still! Tiredly, Relena slumped over and hoped they'd just take her for unconscious and go away.  
  
"Sylvia! What the hell are you doing?!"  
  
Heero?  
  
No.  
  
Male, but not Heero.  
  
"Let go of me, Trowa."  
  
"That's it, Sylvia. We're through."  
  
"What?" Sylvia's voice changed immediately. "But Trowa, baby..."  
  
"Shut UP."  
  
"...N-no.."  
  
"Get out of here before a teacher comes, Sylvia."  
  
She did. There were scattered voices, all of them whiny and high-pitched, and then they were gone. She felt warm hands pull her up, wiping away the blood at her mouth.  
  
Man, Sylvia must have kicked me somewhere important down there in the gut. I'm nearly unconscious.  
  
But from her fading world she was able to get out a last few words:  
  
"Please don't tell Heero who it was. It'd hurt him."  
  
Then, a blessed black.

* * *

_"All she draws is this woman bent over a piano, Noin. Nothing else. That can't be normal."  
  
"She draws it very well, though."  
  
"It's not normal. And it's all she does. She won't watch television, or go outside and play - every day, she sits down at that table and draws that same picture, over and over."  
  
"I know that Zechs, but just give her time. She'll come out of this phase eventually. She just lost a mother, you know."  
  
"..."  
  
"Hell, you just lost a mother."  
  
"Noin, Relena found mother. She had a heart attack while she was playing the piano."  
  
"Zechs..."  
  
"What was the name of that man? I know there was some man whose mother drowned herself, and when they found her in the pool her dress was wrapped around her face...he drew a lot of pictures like that, didn't he? With women - sometimes men - who had cloth wrapped around their face."  
  
"Relena's going to be okay. You just wait and see. It's just a phase."  
  
"Right. Of course."  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"Treize wanted to meet me somewhere. He doesn't trust that Catalonia man with the new Wing Zero technology being imported."  
  
"I don't trust Treize myself, if I can be honest here."  
  
"You can be. I agree with you. But father trusted him like a brother. It said so in his will."  
  
"Just be careful."  
  
"I always am."_

* * *

"Who did this to you?"  
  
Relena gave Heero a faltering smile. They were outside, in some park between the school and their houses, Relena lying down on the grass as Heero hovered over her. How ironic, that just after coming to she should see his face and hear those words, an angel bearing consciousness.  
  
"I think she's going again, Heero." Another voice? Wufei's steady drawl, yes.  
  
Not wanting that, Heero took her by the shoulders and back and slowly lifted her up, giving her support. His warmth cascaded around her and she fought back an urge to grab him and hug him with all her heart, crying out that she'd been so scared, she'd been so unforgivably scared. Because she had been, if that Trowa fellow hadn't shown up things could have gotten so bad, so unbelievably bad - but she couldn't do that, she realized, as she looked up into Heero's beautifully concerned eyes.  
  
She would take care of herself.  
  
She'd promised herself that much.  
  
Besides, knowing he'd been the cause of it might hurt him.  
  
Relena did not want Heero being hurt.  
  
She'd promised herself - and him - that much.  
  
"Hey." He said gently, caressing her bruised cheek. She winced, and, surprising everyone around - she was too woozy to be sure who that was exactly but she knew it was quite a few - Heero responded in kind by kissing that bruised part affectionately, his lips brushing very comfortable against Relena's smooth expanse of skin.  
  
"All better," Relena murmured and let the weakness spread again, making her go limp.  
  
Wufei finally spoke after a moment. He had doubtlessly been caught by just as much surprise as Relena had. "Just tell us who the bastard was and we' shall avenge your injustice." Sally voiced agreement from somewhere nearby.  
  
It was weird; Relena knew they were there but couldn't see them; it was just she and Heero.  
  
_Hah. That would be a real shocker, if someone could call Sylvia a bastard in good faith._ Did nobody consider the fact that females were powerful? Then again, this was Wufei who was talking, and she'd already noted that he seemed a little behind on the feminist movement.  
  
"Heero, I just want to go home."  
  
Hilde's voice, now, loud, pretty, stubborn, resolute but cheerful about it. "She lives close to me, Heero. I can take her."  
  
Heero was quiet for a long moment; he stared down at Relena with such concentration that Relena feared he'd deduced the obvious. But then it broke and he merely shook his head. He swept her up into a big bear hug, arms going around her back and nearly swallowing her in the aura of warmth and wonder. "Heal and smile again," He whispered, and then arms came down to lift her up. Sally and Hilde were kind enough to take her home, supporting her between them on their shoulders. 


	3. Deprived Of This Time

_

* * *

Authoresses Note:  
  
Just a short explanation of the OOC characters and moments here: I did not originally write this as a Gundam Wing fanfiction, but as an original story. Later, I decided I would rather work on other original works, and upon realizing the similarities between my original characters and some of the Gundam Wing characters; I changed names and personalities a little. It's still obvious though, mostly because characters like Heero and Trowa and especially Sylvia are occasionally OOC...I don't think it should matter much though, since AU fiction seems to have a habit of tweaking personalities like this. Please enjoy, read, and review!_

* * *

Part Three of The Woman's Piano: Deprived Of This Time   


* * *

They parted their separate ways then, as the situation dictated they should. Relena's wish to 'just go home' was followed through with the help of Hilde and Sally, who had already talked to Relena earlier about where she lived and had figured out that they were neighbors. Wufei, Quatre and Dorothy headed in their own directions - soon it was only Heero, Duo and Trowa.  
  
Trowa hadn't said a word as he had intruded upon the impromptu little 'picnic' the others had been having, laying Relena down in front of Heero and then standing off to the side as the others scurried to wake her and take care of her. However, now that Relena had indeed been taken care of, attention could be given to Trowa as needed, and they could begin to try and put together the pieces of this severely demented puzzle. Duo, always the loudest and most confident, was the first to turn on him, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him a few inches off the ground.  
  
"If we find out you're the one Trowa, just – geez, how could you stoop so low? She was the new girl in school. I'll give your head back to you in a paper bag."  
  
A bemused expression twitched at the corners of Trowa's face. "I'll pass. I had nothing to do with it." He calmly placed his hands on Duo's chest and gave a little shove, which knocked him back a few feet and stopped any more threatening advances.  
  
Duo sighed, forced to admit his subtle defeat, running his hands through his brown hair and pondering the ground dejectedly. "Relena's a nice girl, and she just transferred here. What is she gonna think about us now, huh? That we're all savages?"  
  
Heero finally spoke up from his kneeled posture on the ground, eyes coming up to sweep Trowa's facial expression, as if that would explain it all.  
  
It didn't, of course.  
  
"If you know who it was, Trowa, please tell us. Somehow I don't believe that you just found her, though it's possible."  
  
But to Heero's surprise, when Trowa turned back to look at him, there was an undeniable glint of – sadness? – to his gaze. Trowa knew more than he was letting on, and that infuriated Heero. Trowa didn't know Relena and couldn't treat this like a paltry game.  
  
This wasn't any stupid game - this was a person and this person was Relena and Heero could still feel a remnant of the absolute panic he'd felt when he'd seen Relena like that, laying on the ground so limp like a doll. Heero never felt panic; he had always been immune to it, an odd little quirk of his persona.  
  
Except then.  
  
Then he'd been truly scared.  
  
Well, there had been other times, true, but they were rare, and it would be inhuman to not feel pain then.  
  
"Ever since you started going out with that Sylvia girl you've totally changed." Duo commented, very determinedly looking at no one.  
  
"I broke up with Sylvia." was Trowa's immediate response.  
  
Silence. Long, uninterrupted silence.  
  
Duo was the first one to speak up again, which seemed only natural. "Cheston's going to cream us in football, huh? Or are you going to be there this year?"  
  
Laughter from Trowa broke through the damper of seriousness that had lay waste to the park's otherwise enchanting atmosphere. It echoed against the ancient trees that still had the ghosts of little Duo and Trowa chasing each other in circles about their base, and it reminded them that the sky was still blue, the birds were still singing, the crickets still humming. Life was going on and it was time for them to do the same.  
  
"Wouldn't miss it for the world. I know you guys are totally useless without me." Trowa smirked and for a moment it was like nothing had ever changed, like they'd been good friends for months and were just having yet another afternoon session together doing the profound art of absolutely nothing.  
  
Like Duo had said though, things had changed the very minute Trowa had begun to out with Sylvia. Trowa had drifted away. Brotherly hugs in the hallway had become little waves of recognition, and then mumbled, uncomfortable 'Hellos'.  
  
"Yeah sure, though pride goest before the fall."  
  
"Goest?"  
  
"Isn't that Shakespeare?"  
  
"Now I know why you failed English."  
  
"Trowa. Duo."  
  
They both turned to face Heero as he spoke. "Yeah?" Duo asked, finally managing to duck Trowa's hold.  
  
"I'm going to go home. See you tomorrow. And Trowa, I don't know what's going on with you, but I'd like to understand more about what happened to Relena later. I'm too tired to try to force it out of you now." He grinned as he voiced the last sentence, as if it was understood that Heero wouldn't really force anything out of Trowa like that. That understanding was, however, a lie, one of the biggest as lies go as well.  
  
Trowa stepped forward. "Actually, I should probably talk to you about it. Now." He sent a glance at Duo.  
  
"Uh-uh. No way. Why should I have to leave?"  
  
Heero also looked at Duo.  
  
"Okay, okay. I'll let you two kissing cousins alone then. Peh."  
  
That last remark earned Duo a little whap in the back of the head from Trowa.

* * *

Hilde let out a long wavering sigh as she exited the Peacecraft estate, crossing the distance of the courtyard with a lazy gaze directed at the heavens.  
  
Sally noted this. "Why so bummed? That place was pretty cool, being in such dire need of exploration..." She grinned, pulling on Hilde's book bag to get her attention.  
  
Hilde scowled, pulling her the weighted sack of books out of Sally's dangerous grasp. "That man's name...Treize..."  
  
A frown met Sally's expression as it dawned on her. "Damn, you're right."  
  
"So you know what I'm talking about?" They reached the gate; it opened for them soundlessly and they were given leave to exit. Accepting this opportunity, the normalcy of city streets greeted them, accentuated by the crisp autumn sky that wrapped around the horizon of tall, heaven aspiring skyscrapers, aptly named in every way.  
  
"Unfortunately, yeah. Should we tell Dorothy? I mean, this was the bastard Dorothy's grandfather was talking about, right?"  
  
"How many rich Kushrenda's do you know?"  
  
"I'm still awaiting an answer on that to tell or not to tell thing."  
  
Hilde paused where she was walking, hands instinctively going into her jacket pockets to warm them up. "We probably should. I mean, Dorothy's grandfather - or uncle, whatever - he said Treize had become obsessed of late with...unorthodox ideas. Maybe terrorist? He has the money."  
  
"Probably should tell him? Probably? You mean, you still have doubts." Sally had to stop abruptly as Hilde did, which she wasn't too happy about, since she wanted to get in out of the cold already.  
  
"Except..."  
  
"Except?"  
  
"I've got a plan."  
  
Sally grinned, enjoying the friendly teasing. "What? You mean I have to do something that requires thinking? That's a low blow; that's a low blow."  
  
"Shhhh. Shut up. I'm thinking."  
  
"You heretic."  
  
"Yeah, yeah. C'mon, give me a second here. You know, I left my agenda there already."  
  
"You klutz."  
  
"It was on purpose."  
  
"What? ...Ohhhhh, I get it." Pause. "I think."  
  
Now it was time for Hilde to grin, and she did. "Took you long enough. Now, let me think."  
  
"Hey, look!" One hand shot out from Sally's side to point ahead, while the other grasped Hilde's arm, asking for Hilde's devoted attention.  
  
Irritated, Hilde was forced from her stupor. She looked up, eyes rising to meet the direction that Sally pointed in. "Not now, please!"  
  
"It's Heero, Hilde-chan."  
  
So it was. Hilde merely stopped and stared; the various pieces of a complex puzzle finally coming together.  
  
Heero was already so, so in love.  
  
The way Heero had talked more to Lila than anyone else earlier in the hallway. The look of absolute fear and apprehension on Heero's face when he saw the injured Relena - Heero was never scared or apprehensive - the kiss he'd given, a mere scrape of lips against a bruised cheek, but still...and now this, him inexplicably seeking her out already.  
  
He came up to them and asked where Relena was. Sally teased him about his 'girlfriend', as did Hilde.  
  
Things are never serious when you joke about it.  
  
Then they, almost begrudgingly, pointed him in the right direction.

* * *

Sleep would not come for Relena, and when it did, the dosage came in fitful bouts of tossing and turning, punctuated by the occasional nightmare.  
  
The nightmare itself was always the same, with a Relena of vastly less years would casually wander into the living room, questioning in her child- like voice, 'Mommy, will you teach me to how to do the eyes? I can never get them right...mommy?'  
  
And then, every single time in these reenactments, Relena would be see her mother draped over the piano, hair spread about the keys and shadowing her face. Every single time, the Relena that was a child would utter another question of 'Mommy?' except this time it would be in softer tones, a gentle whisper coming as instinctively as breath, and this time when Relena would touch her mother, her mother would not respond in kind, enveloping her little daughter in a hug like she always did upon greeting  
  
No matter what Relena did, whether it was the Relena that was a child or the Relena that was quickly becoming a woman - no matter what Relena did, no matter how much she cried and wished for it be so - mother would never respond in kind again, would never hug or greet her little daughter.  
  
The eyes that little Relena had wanted to learn had gone dead.  
  
And it was upon this thought, hollowly poetic, that Relena would wake. Sleep would then beckon back to her, and she would have the same dream again, and after about forty minutes of this vicious cycle Relena finally decided to hell with it. She got up from bed with a little wince, touching her cheek to feel where it would be black and blue.  
  
The easel by the window stared ominously at her; it's blankness proposing a challenge. Since Relena never backed down from such things, verily she was found once again with pencil in hand, brow furrowed as she hacked away at it. The concentration showed early in the art room was nothing compared to this - tears wracked her face as she drew the fingers prettily playing the piano, as she drew the long black hair that had always been her mother's trademark, frizzy and cascading to the mother's waist.  
  
"A beautiful picture. Especially poignant. It shows so much emotion, my dear sister." Relena did not even look up to acknowledge Treize's presence, but it wasn't needed because he left no doubt that he was indeed there, as his one hand rested on her shoulder, needed for balance as he peered in closer for a look at the lovely portrait. She sketched the end of the piano, falling more and more into the rhythm, welcoming the escape.  
  
In this world, the beautiful, dark featured woman still had so many more wonderful years in front of her. In this world she had not been deprived of this time, cut down by some fluke heart attack - one only had to look at how she smiled and chuckled, playing some pretty little ditty, to know that she knew this and was flirting this happy fact to all her heart's content.  
  
"Yes, you are truly talented. But why do you always draw this sad woman, my dear Relena?"  
  
"This woman is happy." Relena retorted. "And you should be, too."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"I got the bruise from some of that Heero boy's admirers. He's quite a playboy."  
  
"Why would that make me happy? Say, why is there a tear running down that woman's cheek?"  
  
"It's my picture. I felt it."  
  
He chuckled in her ear, as if it was a complete mockery that one could ever 'feel' things like that. Yet she knew he wasn't mocking her - Treize 'felt' a lot of things, which was why he was so eccentric.  
  
"You know." She felt him step back, letting loose his hold on her shoulder, his presence somewhat less. "You used to draw so many pictures like this when you were a child."  
  
Lila stopped drawing suddenly, not knowing quite what to think. Treize was decipherable, as usual. He could really be acting sad, or he could be mocking her, or - or she didn't know what.  
  
"Treize..."  
  
A little ring sounded.  
  
"I'm getting beeped. Oh, it's the butler, someone at the door who wants to see you, Relena. Perhaps it's those two girls again? The one left her agenda here."  
  
"Two girls?" That made Relena turn her head, seeing Treize's face for the first time since that morning. It had no remnant of any pain that may have crossed his attentive expression.  
  
Treize nodded, smiling enchantingly. "Yes. Their names were...Hilde and Sally? That was it. You stay here. You've obviously gone through enough today." His eyes flitted over where her cheek was bruised, and then he left to accommodate the new arrival, or arrivals, depending on the situation.  
  
Relena continued on for a good while, working out some kinks/mistakes that presented themselves. Chances were that Hilde and Sally posed no threat to her secret, after all. Eventually, every strand of the woman's hair was just as it should be, not too straight and yet, not too frizzy and wild either - the woman's eyes, not dead at all, mirrored the extreme sense of compassion and goodness that Relena remembered. By the time she decided to give it a rest she wasn't quite done, perhaps not even half there, but she felt truly inspired and knew that if she gave it another few hours or so she could do it, and do it well.  
  
But not now.  
  
Curiosity had forsaken the old fashioned murder of the cat, headed for greener pastures - being Relena's yearning mind, which suspiciously asked the questions of why did Treize not want her to come, if it was truly Hilde and/or Sally? _And why would Treize not know? The butler always gave name identification, so Treize would have to know._  
  
Unless...  
  
Heero.  
  
The second the thought entered her mind, Relena slammed the pencil down on the easel and darted from her post, throwing upon the door as she did so and bursting into all out run down the balcony.  
  
Her heart froze, as her suspicions were proven correct.  
  
Then, as it came back to life, its pounding was no less than ferocious, beating like a maddening drum in her ears, allowing her no rest or time to focus on the solutions to this troubling new problem.  
  
There was Heero, standing down below in the main hall, conversing politely with Treize. Snatches of conversation drifted up to her ears, just barely audible and decipherable. She shrunk against the wall, allowing the shadows to envelop, ears straining and mind racing.  
  
"...so then she's here?"  
  
"Yes, but sleeping. I can get her for you, if it's urgent."  
  
"I wouldn't say its urgent, but it is important...are you her brother?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Has she talked about me then? I'm flattered. Why don't you wait here while I go and see how she is? It'll just be a moment."  
  
"Of course. Thank you."  
  
As Treize came back up the stairs and then began to walk down the hallway, Lila reached out a hand quick as a flash, bringing him to her.  
  
"So I can tell him you're awake, then." He flashed her that royal grin she was beginning to loathe with every fiber of her being.  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
  
"Do? What are you talking about, Relena?"  
  
Relena was silent. It was an insult to her for him to play dumb now.  
  
It took a moment, but eventually he was forced to acknowledge this fact. A sigh punctuated the gloom of the shadows, and then he admitted, with such normalcy as if he was commenting on the weather, "I'll dispose of him."  
  
"You'll what?"  
  
"He's not of any importance to me, after all. It's just the Wing Zero machine that matters. With him out of the picture we can open the right door..."  
  
"The Wing-what?"  
  
"Zero, lovely Relena. Wing Zero."  
  
Relena was too stuck on the killing objective to worry much about mathematics and birds. "You're going to kill him?"  
  
Treize shrugged. "That's the easiest way to dispose of people, isn't it? Thank you for bringing him to me."  
  
"But that's..." Her voice broke; panic and guilt were collaborating as her frenzied mind stumbled for a way out of this mess, but she was lost, and it was all hopeless...hopeless! Heero, who had hugged her and kissed her cheek and smiled and always seemed so concerned about her and her well being.. .Heero was going to die, at her own brother's hand, and then two people would be gone from this world...two people gone through each other's devices... "That's murder, Treize. You couldn't possibly.."  
  
Without another word to Relena, Treize picked up a radio link and began to talk into it in low tones. "Hello? Yes, this is Treize. Yes, it happened...he came to us. Three snipers right here, right now, on the balcony. Be silent. We don't want him to know what hit him."  
  
"I won't let you."  
  
Treize looked up momentarily from his talk, actually chuckling. "Oh? And you will stop me, how?"  
  
Relena glared.  
  
And then, wordlessly, she started off at a run and - noting that she had to get to him as quickly as possibly - swung over the railing of the balcony, landing on the flooring below with a soft thud, but perfectly safe because of its perfect execution, on her feet like a cat does and all. Then, as she raised her eyes and saw Heero standing a couple yards away from her, pretty surprised at her dramatic entrance, she started off at a run, and just as he'd been able to get her name out, she tackled him and silenced him momentarily, the two rolling under the pressure of the sudden imbalance. It ended up so that she was lying on top of him, shielding his body from the bullets that would have sought to punctuate it.  
  
Shoot him now, Treize. I dare you. Shoot him now and you'll kill me too.  
  
You've changed a lot, but you won't kill me, I know that.  
  
I think I do, anyway.  
  
God, I hope so.  
  
After a moment, however, she realized that he could still get to him without providing any injury to her, being if the sniper was precise enough. No, she would have to finalize things a little more.  
  
Heero's breath was coming in controlled short little bursts, his eyes staring up into her own like that should provide some explanation to a situation even she did not understand. His one hand twitched, and then came under control, grasping the cloth of her shirt gently. "Relena what are you -?"  
  
"Shhhh. Shut up." She gazed upon his face for another moment, considering this option that was forming fast in her mind. Then she decided she had no other choice, and she lent down, her mouth searching for his. They came together - Heero's eyes widened all the more, while Relena shut her own as if hiding from something - then Lila's eyes also widened as she felt his tongue slide around the cavern of mouth, and his closed, and he kissed back with full force.  
  
Okay, Treize can't catch us now. He'd kill me for sure.  
  
Please let that be a deciding factor for him, God. I don't believe in you all the time, I'll admit it...but please.  
  
Please don't kill Heero; he's special.  
  
Warmth, Heero's warmth...it flowed around her as he pushed his chest up against her torso, their two forms fitting together perfectly, Heero's hands accentuating that fact as they pressed in around her back, pressed her into him. They kissed again, and then a second time, but the third time Heero's mouth bypassed her face and went for the neck, folding back the cloth of her shirt and pressing smoothly against her expanse of delicate, pearly white skin.  
  
Suddenly very tired though, Relena allowed herself to collapse against Heero, her eyes closed once more and inviting the wonderful black that came without further ado. Heero hugged her against him, noting the sudden change.  
  
If Treize hadn't shot by now, he wasn't going to, Relena decided. So she stood wordlessly, clutching still at Heero's hand. Neither her eyes nor any vocalism of any kind offered any sort of an explanation. Instead, she pulled him up and then merely walked him out of the estate.  
  
Heero trailed behind, very confused. But she didn't even turn to him until they'd gone through the large iron gates, which where already upon for them. When she did, her eyes flitted all over his form and refused to focus on one spot.  
  
"I," She fought for control of breath, "Just _saved_ your life." 


	4. The Wing Zero Machine

_Authoresses Note: It's been a while, and I won't waste anyone's time with excuses. Basically, I took enough time to figure out why I was writing this, and I personally feel that it's all the better for it. I don't know if you've noticed, but I always try to have a theme with my stories. With Two Steps it's about the struggle to retain peace, with Taking Time it's about settling into peace once successfully retained, with A Conflicted Peace it's a marriage of the two. With my MKR story Forbidden, it's a little about war, but mostly about letting love conquer all. This story hits an important note for me, in that it's about grieving for those that have gone before, but finding a new life for ourselves even in the process. Because, you see, Relena will have to make a very important choice in the upcoming chapters..._

* * *

Chapter Four of The Woman's Piano: The Wing Zero Machine

* * *

It was turning into one of the most beautiful nights that Relena had ever seen. Not a single gray cloud fogged up the brilliance of the black sky, and within a portrait of stars, the fully round moon sat as a proud, glorious centerpiece. She had just kissed an amazing boy that, if she was just a little more whimsical and less hysterical, she could spend the rest of her life with – and she was absolutely miserable. Relena was absolutely miserable because she was smart, and this intelligence had lead her to realizations she had been suppressing for a year, longer...  
  
_Treize is a murderer.  
  
My brother is missing.  
  
My brother did not comply with one of Treize's strange requests to find the missing 'Wing Zero'...I believe that was their last argument.  
  
Treize just tried to kill an innocent person – or at least seemingly – for i/the 'Wing Zero'..._  
  
And then: _Oh god. Oh no, no, no..._  
  
Heero was staring at Relena, and finding her the most frustrating girl he had ever met. Totally in the dark, he could only wonder why kissing him passionately – although nothing he would complain about drastically – constituted as saving his life. It was awfully egotistical of her to decide he could not live without her, although not an altogether insane assumption, especially if he received more kisses like that. He certainly hadn't been fighting it, he had to admit, because at the time he had kissed her back with perhaps even more bravado – but hey, who could argue that, it had caught him at surprise and he hadn't had time to observe self-control. And he would have liked to follow that kiss with another, but now she was somehow very upset, the reserves of strength and energy she had been operating on slowly shutting down on her...  
  
"What's going on?" He pressed her, concerning growing as he watched her eyes fill with big, bloated tears. "Relena, is it Sylvia...? I know she gave the other girls a hard time when I first started to talk to them." Anger flashed across his features as he remembered her earlier state. There was still a bruise spanning her cheek line. "She has no business being like that. I have absolutely no interest in her, and I'll tell her when I see her."  
  
Relena wrestled control from her own hysterics and stood up straighter, consoled herself by being aware of how very beautiful the stars were that night, told herself she'd gotten used to the idea of Zechs being gone a long time ago, and said, business like: "What's Wing Zero? Do you know what that is?"  
  
Through the thin veil of tears that was falling out of her control, she saw Heero take a step back, his expression suddenly unreadable. Darkness fell between the two of them, the night somehow colder, and she could not repress a shiver.  
  
"What would you have to do with Wing Zero?" His tone was accusing, but strangely flat.  
  
He sounded hurt and betrayed. She could not argue this – after all, hadn't that been her original intent? And it had almost gotten him killed, because if she'd remained her usual introverted self, he would have never been drawn to Treize like a fly to a spider...  
  
And yet...she was intrigued. What was this Wing Zero technology, that seemed to tie and break lives all around her? The world was spinning out of control and she wanted to understand the faulty axis that had lulled them into catastrophic rotations.  
  
They were both increasingly curious about each other, but it would have to wait, because a braided, grinning fool was running up to them, followed by an amicably smiling Hilde.  
  
And it seemed so...odd, namely after recent events, (that little incident where she realized the only 'family' she had left was, in reality, a cold blooded murderer) to have high school friends reveling in the simple delight of each other's company. They were smiling, like there wasn't a care in the world, when for all she knew they had the worst home life imaginable, or were terrified to the point of suicide about their grades, or had cancer or some other such atrocity befallen them. These could be the best friends in the best time of your life, and all the same, you could know absolutely nothing about them.  
  
They did know, however, that Relena had been crying and that Heero was upset. This was on account of the obviousness, which included Relena crying and Heero looking upset.  
  
So, their smiles faded, and their sprint slowed, and Hilde blurted out: "What's wrong?"  
  
"Um..." Relena took a step back, inadvertently putting more distance between herself and Heero. Visions of her brother flitted past with surprising speed – Zechs chastising her for her grades, as he often demanded perfection in the fatherly role he had usurped – Zechs and Noin kissing on the doorstep and she whining with annoyance, because the ten year old Relena really just wanted them to unlock the door already – Zechs giving her a pretty sweater for Christmas, one doubtlessly picked out by a fashion-minded Noin – a rare hug after he found her crying by the piano in the family room – and that infuriating way he always seemed to know more than she did...  
  
Like with mother, she would never partake in learning anything from him ever again...there was a real possibility now that he was dead...  
  
_Well_ a sickeningly optimistic thought thudded in her brain _you did manage to save at least one person...that boy, Heero._  
  
But, especially since she knew she had only been undoing her own betrayal, it was not enough.

* * *

Today was a very strange day. It was almost as strange as the day those sharks had come, demanding knowledge from his grandfather about the Wing Zero machine. His grandfather, of course, was as stubborn a man as Heero had ever met, and so had refused...no, that had been a horrible day, and today was merely a strange day, resurfacing with a piece of that horror.   
  
Heero was vaguely aware of a light rain, cold and piercing, falling against his unguarded skin, but he could not immediately ascertain the difference between the cold outside and the cold within. Then, he felt a small pang of remorse as a beauty with golden hair turned and ran, somewhere deeper within than the cold screaming for him to follow her, grab her wrist, implore her to explain...but he couldn't, because he wasn't even there anymore.  
  
He was back in his grandfather's apartment, begging these strange men wearing all black, to spare his grandfather. He was begging and begging, staring down the barrel of a gun, and then he began to beg his grandfather to just tell them, but the stubborn man could not be detoured, even in this life threatening situation.  
  
So, the shot heard round the world had happened anyway.  
  
_"Tell us how to use the Wing Zero, old man. Tell us, damn it!"_  
  
Then, strong hands were clenching his shoulder, and he swiveled to peer into Duo's earnest hazel eyes, wide with alarm and confusion.  
  
"What happened between you guys, man?"  
  
Heero wished he had the words to ask the same question. But he did not. Instead, he felt his shaking knees give out beneath him, and he collapsed into the same puddle the agenda had found a home in. "Where did Relena go?" He asked at length.  
  
"That's..." Now Hilde was speaking. "We were going to ask you that, Heero. She just ran off, like ten minutes ago. You've been practically comatose until now."  
  
_If only I was_ Heero found himself thinking _and I would never have to feel anything ever again._

* * *

Treize was having a surprisingly good day that became surprisingly bad surprisingly quick. Being a cool, calm and collected individual, however, he tried his best to meet these surprises with an air of indifference, and after some tactical thinking, he assured himself, he could use these changes to suit his plan anyhow. No matter what strange cards Relena's pluckiness managed to deal him, he still had the upper hand by the pure nature of the situation, and always would.  
  
Plus, now that he knew she cared for the boy...  
  
He swished his wine in his glass and chuckled a little, perhaps at the deceptive irony that he believed was romance. Presently, a figure appeared out of the shadows of the room, a vision from an earlier part of Relena's day, except that where there had once been a warm smile, there was a frown of seriousness married with concentrated thought.  
  
"Dorothy. I thought you'd get here sooner or later." Treize was his familiar polite self, charismatic and charming.  
  
"Never mind that." said Dorothy quickly; her presence was darker than when she'd previously conversed with Relena as a normal, chipper high school teenager. "Why did you summon me here, Treize?"  
  
"Must you always be so curt?" lectured Treize, a little irritably. "It seems that I am not a trusted figure."  
  
"You hold my grandfather's life in your hands, Treize. You're helping us, but for what price? I may be a teenager, but I am not as silly and unintelligent as most my age. I know a thing or two about the old political game."  
  
"You're a fool to pretend this is about politics." responded Treize in equally dark tones. "Don't presume to know about my feelings for your grandfather. I knew him before he was a grandfather."  
  
This was cutting, and the profundity of the statement hung thick in the air. For Dorothy, who did not know Treize as well as Relena, it was startling to see the emotional, reflective side of Treize, just as it was shocking for Relena to see the side of Treize that was cruel and calculating. "I will do the best I can for Catalonia, but it is difficult. Even if I can get the money for the medicine, there's no assurance that the medicine will work."  
  
Dorothy looked down at her feet, remembering her beloved grandfather's grave condition, lying sick and frail on the hospital bed, the cancer slowly eating away at his lungs. She suppressed a shiver, and felt her strong politician's demeanor falling away as carelessly as the rain on the windowpanes outside. Tears, however, were still out of the question, though when she raised her dry face to meet Treize's eyes, brimming with a strange mixture of cold intelligence and knowing regret, it was hard to meet his stare.  
  
"Shall I show you," said Treize, "something that would make your grandfather's death obsolete?"

* * *

From somewhere far away, Relena was in control. She knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it, and what she was doing was going where she needed to go, and she, of course, in this high state of awareness, knew exactly where that was. Then there was another section of her dulled brain that was entirely on autopilot, hysterical and on the verge of tears. Which side won out? It was, of course, the in-control-Relena, because she was used to utilizing this strange alien force detached from reality's troubles, and besides, it was necessary for her survival.  
  
She had to get to Noin's house because she had to find Noin, and she had to find Noin because there were some very crucial questions she had to ask Noin about her brother's disappearance. Relena had never thought to suspect Treize in the past, because he had been the only warm hand ready to embrace her as she sobbed her sorry heart out. It had not happened often, because Relena had a lot of Zech's unnatural poise within her, to be detached even from life altering events like the loss of a loved one (at least, in appearance, completely detached) but when it had happened – and this was important – Treize had been there. But this was the present, and though she still had enough affection for him to stop herself from absolutely hating every inch of him, she was suspicious.  
  
Relena ran through the rain, barely noticing it was raining. She could help but think about him, however, so like distant bells from a faraway land where doves sang and the world was at peace, she remembered an already fond and cherished memory:  
  
_"I suggest you get out of the rain."_

_And Heero, staring at her with a casually powerful gaze she could barely meet, seemed to be someone she knew deep and personally, because somehow, in this mixed up world, the two of them were so alike...and she wasn't sure how she knew this, she just knew, like how you stare at yourself in the mirror._  
  
So, at eight at night, Noin got a rather unexpected visitor from her own past. Her missing boyfriend's younger sister was wheezing on her porch, wild-eyed and soaked to the bone, and Noin, capable of ascertaining the difference between rain and tears, could tell that she'd been crying. Noin stepped out onto the street, looked sideways down at the other cramped apartment buildings to see if any nosy neighbors were watching, and quickly ushered the surprisingly small girl inside.  
  
"Relena, what's going on, why are you here –"  
  
"I'm sorry to bother you, Noin..." Was she? No, she didn't know what to say, so she was wasting time with pleasantries. What she really wanted to do was blurt out: _"Did Treize kill my brother, Noin, and did you know?"  
_  
"It's no trouble. Come in, come in, look at the state of you –" If Relena had her wits about her, which she didn't, she would have been amused. Noin was acting maternal, which was not normally an aspect of the feminist's personality.  
  
"Look, Noin," said Relena when she was out of the cold and wet. "I have to know something about Zech's disappearance."  
  
Noin sighed, but smiled sympathetically. "I knew this time would come someday."  
  
Relena was talking so quickly that, at first, she didn't hear Noin's subtle admittance of important knowledge. "I remember how you felt about Treize, you didn't trust him – and now, something has happened, and I don't trust him either – what...?"  
  
"Treize...no, I've never trusted Treize." agreed Noin, turning away. "I was making scrambled eggs, do you want some?"  
  
Relena ignored this. Besides, who, even a self-declared cooking menace, made scrambled eggs for dinner? "Noin!" She burst out, "You're not working for him, are you? He just tried to kill an innocent boy my age...someone I..." Resolve tightened her throat and made it hard to breathe. "...someone I care g-greatly about..."  
  
Noin swiveled to give Relena a look that utilized all the intensity that she possessed. It didn't last long, because Noin loved Relena with all the passion of an older sister, but it did get the message across to Relena: which was that here, even though it was her brother they were talking about, she was trotting on shaky ground, out of her realm of understanding.  
  
"Don't get me wrong, Relena. I hate Treize more than anything. I would gladly kill him if I could. But put the idea out of your head that Treize was responsible for what happened to Zechs. He came close to saving your brother, far closer than even I could."

* * *

The attention of the three equally befuddled teenagers was suddenly diverted at the sound of high heels chipping against wet pavement. They looked up, and found to their surprise:  
  
"Lady Une!" yelped Duo in surprise at the sight of their homeroom teacher, very pretty and very proud, with her hair long and loose (always a good sign when indicating her mood). "I didn't have anything to do with the water balloons in the cafeteria, I swear to god."  
  
"Very well, Duo." nodded Lady Une sagely. "That just means if must have been your friend Trowa, right?"  
  
Duo was suddenly the epitome of innocence. He could get that way, especially when fabricating lies. "Beg your pardon, Lady Une, but that would be Sylvia. See, they used to go out and all that, except she always liked Heero, so she made it difficult for other girls, but when Trowa found her making it difficult for Relena, he broke up with her and she – "  
  
Lady Une was quick to interrupt the lengthy explanation. "Relena. I believe I saw her when I was at the opposite end of the street. Where has she gone?"  
  
Duo and Hilde exchanged a glance, but Heero, upon seeing Lady Une, gave a polite nod, and then busied himself with an intense studying of the sky and his shoe. It is amazing how, when things are difficult, your shoes and the sky can be the single most important things in the world, and much time is needed to derive the connection between them.  
  
"We don't know." chirruped Duo and Hilde in perfect unison.  
  
"Heero?"  
  
"Hn." He looked up at her blankly.  
  
Her arms were crossed, business like, but a smile seemed to set the small, dirty, wet street afire with unexpected warmth. "What happened when you were at Relena's house?"  
  
"I'm...not sure. I asked to see Relena, because I was worried about her...Sylvia had, you heard, made things difficult for her. I talked to her brother when I got there –"  
  
"You talked to Zechs?"  
  
The response was too quick, it sounded laced with a strange greed for information. Duo raised his eyebrow, while Hilde, remembering her earlier conversation with Sally, narrowed her eyes with suspicion. Strange things were at work here, fighting among richer families, and she wondered vaguely if, unknowingly, their teacher was a member of a richer family.  
  
"Zechs? I...don't know. Maybe." Now, Heero was suspicious too, suspicious and frustrated and wanting very badly to talk to Relena.  
  
Lady Une sighed. "It was not Zechs. Go on, Heero."  
  
"He left," continued Heero, now a lot more focused in the conversation, "and then Relena came." A memory of her jumping like an acrobat, totally ignoring the stairs, would have made him chuckle in happier times. "She seemed in a hurry, and ushered me out of the house." Another memory, this time of the kiss, made him really want to talk to her. "Then...she ran." He tried an attempt at cheerfulness. "Maybe Duo scared her away?"  
  
But Duo, the king of cheerfulness, was not feeling cheerful. He frowned. "No, man, something was going on, something serious."  
  
"I...see."  
  
If the three children were socially perceptive, they would have noticed the pained expression, just momentary, that reigned in her eyes as she cast a downward glance for a moment. They did not, perhaps because they could not have easily thought of their alternately severe and kindly, always mature, teacher that way.  
  
"Heero," continued the Lady Une, and she said the words so flippantly: "For your own good, please do your best to stay away from Relena." She turned to regard the other two. "I suggest the same for you two, although especially for Heero. The situation is not safe. I only have the best interests of my students in mind. And if you ever even hear the name Treize, stay as far away as her possible." She was manifesting the stern Lady Une now. "He is excellent at spreading exaggerated stories around, much like young Maxwell here. I will have Sylvia punished for fighting another student on campus, while you, Trowa, Wufei, and Sally will have to be held responsible for the water balloon fiasco earlier today."  
  
Then, as quickly as she had come, she turned and left, leaving the three students staring after her with mouths wide open. Except for Heero of course, who was far too dignified and caught up in remembering his grandfather's death to waste much time on surprise.  
  
A babble of talk brewed, entirely between Duo and Hilde:  
  
"What is she talking about? Relena is the nicest girl I've ever met – " exclaimed Duo, "Except for you of course, Hilde, eheh."  
  
"I don't trust her...I have to talk to Dorothy and Sally, maybe Quatre too."  
  
"Why should that matter?"  
  
"Because they're rich."  
  
"What? Sally's not rich."  
  
"Relena is rich, too." continued Hilde, on her own, separate vein of thought. "I wonder if there's a mob war or something going on...is Lady Une rich?"  
  
"What? Whatever – Oi, Heero, where are you going?"  
  
When Heero turned over his shoulder to face his good friends, his face was smiling like nothing in the world was wrong. "Home, that's all. I'll see you guys tomorrow in school."  
  
"What _ happened_ between those two?" wondered Hilde loudly when he'd gone.

* * *

Dorothy could do nothing but stare at the machine. It was not so much its appearance but what Treize promised was its capability that astounded her. And, if every word he spoke was pure truth, then she would never have to worry about her grandfather's death. Somehow, she couldn't help but trust him. It was the way he carried himself, so she was able to entrust faith that she wasn't talking to a complete psychopath.  
  
"It was created by five old insane fools, but genius fools at that, always the greatest kind. Someone sits in there." explained Treize, waving absent- mindedly to an egg-like chair with wires and other various panels and contraptions jutting out of it. "We're actually within a giant robot right now, not that you can tell. The thing cannot move, except for when the right trigger is pulled, and his left hand can pull apart the door between life and death."  
  
"Trigger?"  
  
"Something to do with Heero Yuy. I don't entirely understand it myself yet. Technically, the person that sits in that chair should be able to control it, but something is blocking it, and somehow it is Heero Yuy's existence." He paused, eyes going dark again, like when he'd professed to care about her grandfather as a dear old friend. "It can be very dangerous, this machine, especially with the blockage. An old...partner of mine, I suppose...he tried to use it anyway, to resurrect a woman. He turned into a vegetable."  
  
"This..." Tentatively, she stepped forward, reaching out a hand to caress the rough, metallic machinery. Treize did not stop her, apparently because there was no risk unless it was turned on, which it was not. "...I heard my grandfather talk about this, the Wing Zero." A smile twitched at her lips, playful, carefree, innocent, and excited beyond explanation. "I thought it was just a fairytale."

* * *

"My brother is in a coma because he tried to do what?" said Relena weakly, feeling very much like the ground was spinning upwards to meet her.  
  
"I couldn't tell you, Relena, I was being a fool. I sought to protect you, and only hurt you further. I am so sorry." With little hesitance, Noin advanced, and embraced the far younger, smaller girl in a tight embrace.

And that wasn't what Relena wanted, not at all. She didn't want to be coddled, not in this foreign world, because god knows, no place was her home since Zechs had left, and she had often felt like a weary traveller traversing between worlds, observing and sometimes understanding but never being able to stay. She wanted action, she wanted to bring her brother back, to destroy the evil machinery that had ravaged her life. Why was everyone she loved so dearly such a pitiless, insane fool, racing for immortality and the legendary like? You could not bring back people from the dead - what was Noin saying, saying it like she believed in the whole crazy thing?

"Treize fought so hard to stop him, Relena, he almost choked your brother in the fistfight, to wind him, knock him unconscious. But," Noin laughed a hollow laugh that echoed against the empty walls. "Zechs used to be so strong. Used to. So, I hate Treize, because he's manipulative, he's not a man, he's a snake, but in this particular case, Relena, it wasn't his fault."

* * *

When he had put enough distance between his friends, Heero sat down on an empty street corner, and took out a piece of paper. The darkness was so total that even directly under the streetlight, he had to strain to see the picture. But it was there nonetheless, beautiful, brimming with an artist's genius, a melancholy picture of a piano.  
  
He could tell it was unfinished, because he could see the faint outline of a hand in a corner, about to press the keys. Briefly, his original mission concerning the trip to Relena's house flitted through his brain. Before Sylvia had got to her – Sylvia, who he would have to deal with tomorrow – Relena had been dutifully drawing a picture in the art room. Faintly, he mused that he wished he had this talent, but it was far beyond him. Relena drew with a woman's hand, sensitive and emotional and almost always sad...  
  
And he, he was a man, an insensitive man prone to being overly emotional, but this sad fact on the male existence only made him desire her more. He wanted to learn about her, to understand her, and, yes, admittedly, to kiss her again, and again, and then move on to other late night activities. If he could do this before he died, he would die a happy, satisfied man – this, he was sure of.


	5. The Lady's Lover

_Authoress' Note: Hm, there's not much to say, other than I don't have anything against Sylvia in the series. I think it's pretty dumb, actually. I needed a character whose physical looks everyone knew but whose normal personality nobody cared about. Guess who was convenient? Please enjoy this latest installment (I got it out relatively quickly!) and send a review my way telling me what you think (critiques are blessed and flames stupid). Thanks, until next time!

* * *

_

Chapter Five of The Woman's Piano: The Lady's Lover

_

* * *

I'm running away,_ she thought sadly to herself, finishing a still life with perfection. The flow of color seemed to bring it to life, and it almost couldn't be described as 'still', because there was too much motion of detail involved.  
  
After the incident with Treize, Relena had not been in school the next day, or the day after that. The third day was the charm, when she cheerfully handed Lady Une an excuse for her cold, and promised she would make up quickly in her studies, despite the lost time. It was amazing how much work she'd managed to accumulate so soon into the school year, and how two days of absence made the burden almost inhuman.  
  
More amazing, however, was the ease with which you could avoid people, even if said individuals shared several classes with you. Homeroom was easy, because she spent the entire time talking to Lady Une, who, strangely enough, sought every opportunity to stop Heero from intruding, ranting about what teacher had assigned Relena what and how about the weather darling and my, have you done something to your hair – if anything, Lady Une was almost being too inadvertently helpful.  
  
Relena did not know, like Treize did, that Heero Yuy's existence (of which the main details are still absent) was a direct obstacle to the actual operation of the Wing Zero machine. She did know, however, that dark powers were at work here, and that Treize would not abandon his mission to kill the boy, and that she definitely did not want, if anything, a repeat of Heero's visit to her humble home. And she wasn't staying there anymore, of course – Noin was keeping her in hiding, to the extent that, when some of Treize's thugs came inquiring, Relena hid anxiously in the broom closet until Noin had angrily pushed them out, yelling, "Tell the damn snake to come himself next time!" It wasn't intelligent at the time, and later both Relena and Noin agreed that Treize probably would, and be just as oily as usual.  
  
Because of all this, a practical Noin did not want Relena to go to school.  
  
_"It cost a lot of money to create the Wing Zero, and there were many rich families that funded it together. And almost all of them still remember it, and want it for themselves, or destroyed. It's hard to tell who's who. I don't want you to get caught up in their bickering. From what you've said, it sounds like Treize already used you as a chess piece."  
  
"I don't think I'd run into any of them at school," snapped Relena peevishly.  
  
Noin just shook her head. "You'd be surprised. There's a girl named Catalonia, I forget her first name – and a nice young man named Quatre Winner. Both these children are high school age, and I'm almost positive they go to your school. Catalonia and Winner are both in this war, Catalonia more than Winner, but...ah, I can tell by your eyes that you know them."  
  
A little horror struck, Relena looked away, chewing her bottom lip meditatively. Noin sighed.  
  
"You can go, but please...be careful."  
  
_So, Relena had gone, with reservations and caution, and she stayed decidedly away from Heero, Dorothy, and Quatre. Quatre was easy; because she had never known him particularly well to begin with, other than to observe he was a docile, polite young man. As previously stated, she successfully eluded Heero and Dorothy in early morning, and by using her lunch period to stay in the art room, she thought she might actually escape them the whole day.  
  
Assigned artwork was never quite as inspirational, but she felt strongly that she'd done this particular piece some justice, and felt a little happier at the thought. Lost in another world again, a furious frenzy of pencil strokes flying across the page in their effort for creation, she didn't notice Heero until several moments after he had arrived.  
  
"Ah...Heero!" Relena smiled quickly, but the taciturn Heero just stared at the drawing.  
  
That was fine. They shouldn't talk to each other anyway; it was too complicated now. She quickly dropped her pencil and backed up, the excuse just barely entering her brain before it made the transference to her mouth.  
  
"I'm sorry, Heero, you have really shoddy timing, I have to go, I'll be late for class if I don't hurry –"  
  
She had barely gotten a step further when he felt her hand around her wrist, not violent but firm, and the movement was so sudden and unexpected that she felt herself stop as if pinned, tied to her heart in the expanse of dusty art room.  
  
"Class isn't for twenty minutes." He said, and his voice was level, completely unemotional. "Why don't you explain some things to me? Like why you've been avoiding me?"  
  
"Will you leave me alone if I do?" returned Relena, proving that she could play this unemotional role just as well.  
  
Neither his voice nor his words betrayed hurt, but she was beginning to know him too well to think otherwise. "Do you want me to, then?" His words sounded so flat. "Leave you alone?"  
  
"I..." Well, perhaps she wasn't that good at the whole placid role. Her free hand went up to her face, a makeshift-hiding place within the coveted darkness of her shaking hand. "No..."  
  
Slowly, her voice gained in strength, seeming to echo off the frail studio walls. "No, I want more than anything to be around you, but as you see, I can't. So...  
  
"I'll talk to you later." This was an insanely idiotic statement yet understandable, especially in the confusing midst of the situation.  
  
She felt him drop her hand, but heard no other movements behind her.  
  
Then, "Come away with me."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Let's...just leave. Get out of here. I want you with me, Relena, and I can do that, I'm...fine with it."  
  
A sigh of relief escaped, and she felt her entire body relax. "Okay," she said, and happily, every ounce of courage and assurance was behind it.  
  
Warm hands appeared around her waist, drawing her to him, as he kissed the back of her neck fondly. Slowly, his hands tucked into the curve of her hips. She let herself slide against him and then, turned around and buried herself in his chest, his embrace.  
  
They stood like that for a moment, and then Heero gave Relena their second kiss.  
  
She wished for many more to come.

* * *

Dorothy, not watching but hearing enough from her post outside the art door, tapped her forehead speculatively. "I'll try, Treize, but this is getting difficult, and complicated. On the one hand, it's so easy, because he _is_ close to her – but what do you do when she's close to him too?" She uttered a loud sigh projecting all the frustration that ailed her. "No, Relena will have to do it without knowing what she's doing. That's the only way..."  
  
"Talking to yourself, Catalonia?" sneered a passing Sylvia.  
  
"Oh, yes." replied Dorothy in cheerful tones. "It's quite fun, actually." She pulled back her arm, and punched Sylvia in the face. "Naturally though, doesn't compare to that. _That_ was fun.  
  
"So," continued Dorothy, neatly stepping over the sprawled body on the floor, "I guess what I'm saying is, I'll be the only one allowed to hurt Relena and Heero from now on, okay?"  
  
When Heero and Relena came out hand-in-hand, they exchanged confused glances, but not willing to waste time, and definitely not wanting to take Sylvia to the infirmary, they did the same as Dorothy: stepped over the body, and contently went on their way.  
  
It was kind-hearted Quatre who, after a dozen or so other students making the discovery, finally picked her up and made the long trek to a nurse's attention.

* * *

Normally, detention for a week meant sitting, very bored, in a confining classroom, and normally, this lasted until some inhuman hour of the day, when no more fun could be had, and homework sat on the student's foreheads for the rest of the night.  
  
However, it was of Lady Une's opinion that this might not work in the delinquent's case of Duo and company. She submitted a suggestion to the principal, and because she was well-respected, and Duo and company were not, and the suggestion was actually rather brilliant, Duo and company found themselves within the position of a confining classroom until some inhuman hour of the day, except that now, there was the addition of work.  
  
"The janitor that cleans this hallway is retiring, and until we find a replacement, it would be helpful if you could clean it for him." said Lady Une, smiling the whole time.  
  
And rather soon, they were given an up close and personal look at the absolute pigs that posed as their fellow students.  
  
"I just found two apples in the corner of a room." sighed Sally at one point, and from the bluish color of her complexion the rest of her friends guessed it had been sitting there for quite some time.  
  
Wufei was brushing rigorously, eager to complete any task handed to him. "Stop whining and do your share." It was an infuriating quality of his, that eagerness to please those he felt were deserved teachers. Of which, only Lady Une and the principal ranked, and it was poor luck for the rest of them that they were the ones doling out the punishment. The result was a Wufei who was almost goody-two-shoes.  
  
Sally would have ordinarily glared at him, but instead, she just rolled her eyes to her left, and nodded in that direction. Wufei took her cue and looked, and then brought his broom handle harshly against Duo's back, enraged.  
  
"What are you doing, baka! Standing there sleeping on your broom while everyone else is doing work!"  
  
Duo just cast a mournful gaze towards the window, where outside the sun was shining and he could see Hilde conversing happily with a group of girls he didn't know. "I don't even know why I'm here." He pouted. "I wasn't there when you guys set off the balloons, you know."  
  
"Yes, but it was your idea..." pointed out Sally, stopping as another figure entered the room, tall and solemn as usual. "Oh, hey Trowa, did you finish the rest of that room already?"  
  
Trowa had a dustpan in his one hand and a brush in the other, but his expression spoke of thoughts other than cleaning and dusting. "Both Relena and Heero skipped last period history class with Lady Une." He said, leaning against the doorframe.  
  
Since he had stopped going out with Sylvia, she had become even worse, harassing anyone that got close to Trowa with the same passion formerly administered on Heero. Not only that, but she seemed to be _everywhere_, turning up quite randomly, always with a posse of girls that seemed constantly accusing and angry. One day was enough to drive a normal person insane, and although Trowa was a pretty strong individual, the stress seemed to emanate in silent vibes off his every movement.  
  
Plus, everyone had been worried about Relena, and nobody had seen her, even when the roster said she was supposed to be in school.  
  
It didn't take a whole lot of deduction to figure out what had happened.  
  
"Wow...they just took off." Duo whistled. "Score one for Heero."  
  
Sally, possessing a female's sensitive touch, noted that Trowa didn't seem quite as enthusiastic. Wufei went as far to observe that even despite the usual sullenness, Trowa was behaving oddly (but more importantly, _not_ doing any work). Duo whistled and continued to know nothing, but he did sweep a little. 

Trowa himself was not helpful for the remainder of the afternoon, too caught up in his thoughts, which involved a lot of a pretty blonde with wide blue eyes.

* * *

At that moment, the same pretty blonde had those pretty blue eyes focused on the punk before her. From somewhere far away, it struck her that they must really constitute as an odd couple. She was wearing a long lavender dress which, although not preppy or altogether innocent, did not seem appropriate paired with a young man in all black. Then again, Heero, who smiled even through his sullenness, didn't seem to suit the black, and to her anyway – and who mattered more than herself in this place here with this person at this time – nothing seemed more right.  
  
_I'm being rash and insane. You'd think I'd never poured over Romeo and Juliet numerous times, and drawn that balcony scene more times than that. I've barely known him for a week. What makes me think that I'm in love?  
_  
He smiled at her, the previous hostility and chilliness gone between them. They'd decided to just walk where fate took them, and coincidentally, it had taken them to a beautiful park, with fiery trees beginning to dot the cobblestone lanes flashes of orange and red. It was pretty as a picture, and Relena, obsessed with drawing as she was, was already thinking of incorporating it into a portrait.  
  
He leaned forward and shyly kissed her forehead. "Is something wrong?" he asked in that familiarly kind, yet equally gruff, voice.  
  
_Well,_ said a kinder, more sentimental part of her, _there is the fact that he's a loving, kind person...but not naïve! Intelligent, darker, so much that it scares me sometimes, but at the same time it reminds me so much of myself...but that loving part? How can I not love that back? Oh for god's sakes, don't analyze things, and most importantly, don't convince yourself you'll kill him by just loving him! You're not _that _powerful, no matter what you may wish._  
  
"I'm fine," she said quickly. "Sorry. I was just wondering what to say if the school finds out about this. They will, I'm sure." Actually, she had been thinking about it. She'd also been thinking that if they called Treize, her guardian, he would probably give her an alibi by means of getting her in debt to him. 

She still didn't have her mother's necklace.  
  
"I've been a good student. I'll take my knocks as they come, but honestly, if I apologize, I don't think I'll get into much trouble."

He began to walk steadily ahead, and because they were holding hands, she followed dutifully, coming up at his side. "Yeah, me neither. I don't...regret it. So, what were we talking about?"  
  
"I think: nothing. A good subject."  
  
She agreed. "So, now that you've seen my house," They were being careful around _that _subject, but all the same, she really wanted to get to a point where they could pretend nothing had happened, "what's your home like?"  
  
He laughed. "Smaller. Much smaller. My grandfather used to run a card shop in the front, and we lived on the top floor."  
  
She digested this but somehow didn't feel alienated from his lifestyle. Their upbringing must have had some important similarity if they already had this much in common and kept coming back to each other like this. "Well, don't think I'm a rich girl or anything. I actually have no money to my name."  
  
"Rich is sort of common around here. Quatre and Dorothy are too, but we don't treat them any differently." He shrugged.  
  
"I heard that they were." As a little pause stretched in the conversation, a smile formed, and she couldn't help but act out the playfulness that extended from the joy in her heart. "Well then!" Her voice took on an air of indignity. "If I'm not going to be revered and worshipped as I deserve, I won't waste my time on you, commoner –"  
  
Her sarcastic attempt was stopped mid sentence as he gently pushed her into the nook of a tree, and, hands running up the curve of her back, kissed her tenderly. "The lady has spoken." He said when he was done, beginning to turn away. "I'll leave."  
  
"You know," said Relena, kissing his cheek, burrowing herself into his shoulders, and spreading her arms around him in a great bear hug, "there are actually women that would turn someone like you away. God forbid."  
  
"A kiss on the cheek?" His smile twitched, irony evident. She kissed him unexpectedly and did not kiss when it was unexpected?  
  
"What, so it wasn't like before. I was busy saving your life, you know. The situation doesn't demand the same urgency anymore."  
  
"Saving my life? You must be egotistical, thinking I can't survive without you."  
  
"I'm just maddening that way." She said, laughing, until it was cut short, when he kissed her better than she was sure she did while saving his life. Perhaps they were unseen snipers _here_, targeting for her, for all she knew.  
  
And if they were, she was going to make the last few minutes of her life count. So she kissed him as he deserved, and decided he was not a commoner after all.

No, there never was anything common about Heero Yuy.


	6. Sleeping Beauty

_Authoress Note: Thanks for reading! In response to a thoughtful review: I wish! I've tried to draw, but I'm not that good at it. Maybe that's why I have a bad habit of getting carried away with imagery when I write, to compensate...well, I haven't done that with this story that much. Anyway, in the earlier chapters especially, many of the characters were OC because they _weren't_ Gundam Wing characters, but a fictional story that my friend asked me to write. She actually made up the character I morphed into Relena, and since she was obsessed with drawing and a recluse, I made her obsessed with one image to demonstrate her reclusiveness. I thought a woman over a piano was eerily poignant, thus the reoccurence and the story's title!_

* * *

Chapter Six of The Woman's Piano: Sleeping Beauty

* * *

They didn't spend their entire time kissing, although it was an enjoyable activity. Relena and Heero shared something valuable and special, especially when considering romance: friendship. They talked about everything, mostly by discussing a whole lot of nothing – and they fed the ducks in the park, got ice cream and found an arcade.  
  
Relena had never touched a pinball game before, a fact Heero was astonished to hear. He was no connoisseur of the game himself, but his grandfather had been, and, a manifestation of his grandfather's eccentric aspect, had kept one in the corner of his bedroom. He tried to show her how to play, but lost almost immediately, and they both had an innocent, good laugh when Relena played the game for the first time and broke all the records.  
  
"Thanks for buying the ice cream. I'll pay you back tomorrow; I insist." She fought to balance on the cobblestone wall that separated sidewalk from a rich neighbor's upraised lawn.  
  
"Hn. You're crushing my attempts to be a gentleman."  
  
"I would like to feel a sort of dignified lady, who can take care of herself." countered Relena. "But if you insist, I won't pay you back."  
  
Heero smirked, chuckling cheerfully. "That's what I thought. The gentleman's lady is predictable." He looked down, feeling something cold on his wrist.  
  
Indeed, a glistening raindrop lay there. Quickly darting his gaze upward, he could see that the skies were overcast and gray. It was going to rain soon. Why did it rain so often now? For a month prior, the sun had been shining obnoxiously, telling the whole world of a fake happiness.  
  
"Are you going to walk me home?" asked Relena suddenly.  
  
He paused before looking at her, meaning _really_ looking at her, analytically trying to understand the problems that still waited for them, held off only by this momentary peace within a hurricane of mystery and bloodshed. He had to look up to see her, and so some of the more complicated nuances of her facial expression was lost to him, but he could tell things were strained by the determined way she kept her gaze forward, her body rigid. "Relena..."  
  
"Don't worry. I just wanted to explain that where you were before is _not_ where I live. I can show you my house for real this time, okay?" _That should detour him from making any extra visits to Treize, landing like a mouse on a serpent's lethal door._  
  
As the thought entered her brain, and she felt a little happier for the obvious wit of it, the rain came down, pummeling them full force. They were on the same street where they had first met, and both of them knew it. As they looked at each, a slow, shy, mutual smile warmed both faces.  
  
Relena chucked. "I guess there's no hurry, huh?"  
  
"Are you cold?" asked Heero, pushing the teddy bear under his jacket for protection.  
  
"No..."  
  
"Then...rain is good." He paused. "Everyone else runs when it rains."  
  
"Yeah..." murmured Relena. The rain felt so cool and beautiful, running down her back in stemming streams, plastering her hair to her head. "But...this is better."  
  
Heero blinked. "What's better?"  
  
Silence stretched between them. When Relena spoke, there was obvious shyness, a hesitance, but nonetheless, a solid conviction lay behind her words:  
  
"Finding someone...to stand in the rain..._with_."  
  
Kneeling, she attempted to make it down easily to the ground, but Heero's one free arm was there before her, guiding her to the ground, allowing for an even smoother landing. "Thanks," she said, leaning against the wall.  
  
This had been an eventful day.  
  
They'd met in the dusty art room, and she'd decided to live life rather than fear it; they'd kissed lovingly by the age-old weeping willow in the park, had fun in the arcade, and come full circle back to that moment in the rain when they'd first met, when an ill wind had brought fate to Heero's knee in the form of a soggy, half-formed drawing.  
  
But none could compare to a moment in the rain. Heero reached out his hand, and gently traced her jaw line.  
  
"I would stand anywhere to see your smile."  
  
Powerfully, she could hear the rain's lullaby. When it rained, the entire Earth was a drum, and the different sounds that emanated from the sidewalk, the gravel road, and the leafy plants seemed like a cooling song of life. Most prominent, she could hear her heartbeat, drumming against her chest wildly and uncontrollably.  
  
_Perhaps heaven is crying now...after all, what else can rain be metaphorically? But I could not care if heaven itself fell down on me now. If it did...I would ask to compare angels._  
  
The overly sentimental thought clung over her head like the damp, dark rain cloud that follows the unlucky until she said goodbye on Heero's porch. He saw Noin's outline in the doorway, understood a waiting guardian, and shoved a last token into her hands.  
  
"You already gave me the bear, Heero," she said, confused, unwrapping the crumpled paper.  
  
"Yeah, but," he pointed at it. "It's the picture you were drawing before Sylvia...yes, I heard about it. No, I won't do anything unless she threatens you again."  
  
"Just a piano," she said, not adding the whole woman had been there until Sylvia's 'renovations'. "Thanks, Heero. I guess I can just say you were returning this, huh?" She nodded in the direction of the imposing shadow that was Noin. Heero nodded, and then, after a pause, bent down to kiss her on the cheek, just in case a real kiss would warrant trouble.  
  
They waved goodbye until the shadows and distance took her angel away from her.

* * *

When Relena entered her new home, she expected to deal with a disapproving look from Noin. Instead, Noin, who wasn't knowledgeable about the Wing Zero project barring Zech's obsessive involvement, presented her with cake.  
  
"I got this from a lady in the office today. It was some girl's birthday, but she's on a diet or something. Wanna celebrate with me?"  
  
Relena did.  
  
"So, what are we celebrating?" asked Relena, a little guiltily plowing her fork into the vanilla cake (ice cream and then cake? – her naturally nice figure could be in danger, spoke her vanity).  
  
They had sat down at the small table in the kitchen constituting as a dining hall. Relena was not used to cramped quarters, but instead of being outraged as one typically of her breeding (breeding, particularly meaning, mansions for homes); she was pleased not to be overwhelmed by gaudy, ambitious decorating. It helped that the cake was very good, of course.  
  
"Well, your smile, for one thing. I haven't seen a pure smile from you ever since you got here. You skulking about the house like that weren't healthy; I see that now. It must be that boy... Even with Treize breathing down our necks, and...well, life moves on, you know? I'm happy for you, Reli."  
  
The nickname hadn't been used since the days Zechs used to tease her, an annoyingly arrogant young man who seem impartial to their mother's death. Relena knew better now, positive he had been trying to resurrect their mother with the failed Wing Zero project. Yet, even though she knew it should be okay for Noin, who she loved like an older sister, to use the name, it felt like Sylvia had just dealt her that surprisingly strong kick and winded her completely. Except, of course, that Sylvia, no matter how hard the poor girl tried, could only deal wounds that would, as Heero put it, "Heal", so the owner could "smile again". This was like a haunting, a ghost rattling chains about her wrists and ankles.  
  
Noin knew she had been tactically fallible when Relena's smile stayed screwed on eerily, her eyes deadening with every passing half-second. "Relena, I'm sorry..."  
  
"It's okay. It's okay. At least I know he's alive now, Noin." She tried to put on a real smile and failed horribly, so instead frowned into her cake. "That means there's hope, right?"  
  
Noin leaned back in her seat and lit a cigarette, a practice she had picked up recently. If Relena could recall, before the...disappearance...Noin had never smoked, calling it the _disease_ that killed her uncle.  
  
But Relena could understand. Losing her brother was unbearable, for he was her aggravating sibling, her secretly loved and admired older brother. Relena also knew Noin and Zechs had been steadfast childhood friends. When Relena had been younger, she'd even been jealous, because her short years with him couldn't replace love that had so far lasted a lifetime (and would hopefully continue to do so).  
  
Without Zechs, Noin didn't have as much care to protect her life in every single little aspect.  
  
"Would you like to see him, Relena?"

* * *

That night, as darkness fell and the rain slowly died away, Relena drew madly.  
  
This was her survival, her way of breathing again, to keep the emotions from crushing her. Her loss over her mother and Zechs, her confused relationship with Treize, her sinful, potentially damaging love for Heero – it was all so stressful, so inhuman to bear, and so she had to rid herself of it. To do this, she drew, and threw chaotic life into chaotic fabrication.  
  
She felt like she had come a long way since the drawings of the woman by the piano, so still and melancholy. Although there was still a pure loveliness about that scene, the walk in the park had proved too inspirational for her to continue the drawing Sylvia had tampered with. So instead, she drew ducks in motion, a red lake below them, painted by the sunset. Angry colors could be inserted into this lake, but they were stringed and taut under a lavender sky, stilled beneath the surface.  
  
The ducks, suspended in motion throughout, were stuck between the water and sky, not sure if they were River-Gods or Sky-Angels. _I'd imagine we're all a bit of both,_ thought Relena.

* * *

Relena's small room in Noin's apartment house was already full of papers: on the floor, on the easel, on the desk in the corner. The papers on her desk exemplified her personality, especially when compared to a desk nearly halfway across town – where Lady Une pored over scientific diagrams, mathematical scribbling, written reports. It was a stark contrast to the poetic visuals on Relena's desk, though both obsessions revolved around similarity: death, and the Wing Zero machine.  
  
Lady Une pushed her chair back, throwing a report halfway across the room to flap in the onslaught of the fan. She rubbed her aching temples with a deep sigh, and thought several deeper thoughts.  
  
_I can't make any better sense of how those five created that machine than either Treize or his scientists. Why would they mention Heero Yuy before they died, though? It doesn't make any sense. He wasn't even born during the time that they were making a lot of headway with the technology.  
  
And now Treize is trying to kill Heero, assuming that would be the solution...would it be? It would make it work, he seems to think, and I cannot allow that. I promised those five crazy scientists before they died...Too many glitches. Too many problems even if the glitches don't surface. Some doorways were just not meant to be opened.  
  
Like the one between life and death.  
  
Even if that means..._

The thought haunted her, and the Wing Zero's design glared up at her, until she frankly couldn't take it anymore. She needed to get out of here, away from this suffocating room with its suffocating reality, so as the rain died away and the stars lay bright and white in the sky, she gathered up her autumn coat and took to the streets. But she'd barely gotten out her front door before she found him there, smiling as if they were not fierce enemies in a desparate war, as if it was only yesterday and they'd promised to have a quiet evening dinner together. He even had a bouquet of red roses, brandishing it towards her in a kind fashion.

_But it's deadly. It might as well have blades or poison. At least then it wouldn't be misleading._

"Treize." She couldn't help but sneer at the flowers. "What are you doing here?"

"As usual, you're an affectionate woman." Treize closed his eyes sagely. "Relax. I'm not extending the hand of friendship, or even romance."

"But you found my address."

When his eyes opened to gaze at her, there was no playfullness, but an eerily direct seriousness. "I've come to warn you."

"You mean threaten."

"I'm not as in control as either you or I wish, Une. The Bartons will be making their move against the Winners soon. Since you're aligned with the Winners, I suggest...caution." Curtly, he threw the roses at her, and she caught them quickly. Even down to the smallest detail, the two seemed to feel a deep need to compete. _In these affairs, we have no right to play chess,_ admitted Lady Une introspectively."Of course, I helped feed the conflict, but surely you didn't expect me not to make a move?"

Without saying a word, Une bent down to sniff the flower's sweet aroma. It was beautiful, of course, somehow deceptively so. "A rose by any other name...I wonder, if a bastard was a nobleman, what would they call him?"

Treize just laughed.

* * *

They went to visit Zechs the next morning. 

Particularly, Relena had always loathed hospitals. What good can come of a place where the injured and the dying are stored together? Sometimes, she knew, there was healing, but since this was balanced with death and pain, she couldn't bring herself to see it in even the smallest ray of possible positive light. Luckily, most of the deaths in her family had been random and not foreseeable, so they had not wasted away slowly in a white hospital bed.  
  
That was another question entirely, actually, the overall whiteness of hospitals. It was blinding, and so opposite to the colors and detail that she tried to derive from life in her art, that she always left the place feeling a peculiar numbness in her fingers and heart.  
  
Also, the candy striper delegated to show them to Zech's room was altogether too sympathetic, making Relena fear the worst about her brother's condition. The pretty, caramel-haired vixen nodded deeply and gave them both a sad, almost understanding smile. But the girl couldn't understand. If Relena wasn't so caught up in her annoyance, she would've noted how much the girl resembled Trowa, in all the angles of the face, but mostly in the poignant, hazel eyes.  
  
And deep inside, she was also furious at Noin, keeping such a secret.  
  
_But honestly, if she'd told me this story a year ago, I wouldn't have understood it. I wouldn't have believed her. And I would have been horrified that Treize and Zechs could even tamper with such a thing. I would have thought it out of character, except that now I see, especially due to Treize's recent actions, they were a more arrogant and trigger-happy pair than previously perceived._  
  
The female Trowa stopped down the white corridor suddenly, and gently opened a white door, stepping back to grant Noin and Relena passage.  
  
"Thank you, Catherine," said Noin, stepping inside.  
  
Relena followed, and immediately had to fight to choke back the emotion that overcame her next.  
  
Her brother was on a cursed white hospital bed, so unchanged, as if it were yesterday. Indeed, Relena could've just discovered him taking an afternoon nap on the couch. In an hour he would get up and chastise her for being behind on her schoolwork, and then he would order Chinese, since neither he, Treize, or Noin were very adept at cooking. When he seemed so peaceful like that, eyes closed serenely, even smiling at some private joke, it was hard not to imagine or fantasize that better world.  
  
She was brought back to the harsher world as she felt Noin's warm, assuring hand on her shoulder. Relena glanced at Noin, and then went to him, hugging him gently, careful not to damage the hospital's white machinery that kept him an inch from death. It felt wonderful to embrace him again. On the ride here, she had promised herself: _Even if half his body is missing, I won't cry. I've shed too many tears over this._  
  
Seeing him so normal, however, his mind the only penance, was more difficult than she could ever imagine, and eventually, she would find that she had lied to herself, as unbidden tears flowed without regret.  
  
"Zechs..."


End file.
